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Adventures in gardening
Jun 17, 2008With the price of my favorite organic veggies steadily climbing, I decided to try my hand at cultivating a garden. It’s been an interesting journey. The hard work was anticipated. Having to protect my garden from Bambi and Thumper was not.
I surveyed the backyard plot Sunday afternoon. All was fine. The lettuce was a foot high. The cabbage were starting to develop heads. The beans were growing like crazy. I weeded for a bit and moved on to laundry, the bane of my weekend.
When I returned later in the evening, something had run amok in my garden. The lettuce had been stomped and devoured. The cabbages were missing their leaves. So were the beans. I found a hoof print in the soft dirt.
Which brings me to Monday night and a venture to a local home improvement superstore. Needless to say, the store does not stock coyote urine (which is supposed to deter the deer and other problem animals, including armadillos and javelinas - don’t think I have any of those in my backyard). The fellows working at the store got a good laugh out of my request. So I settled for some organic deer-be-gone spray that smells like mint and rotten eggs and a roll of deer netting which I wrapped around the outside of the garden. I’m not sure this is going to work, but I refuse to do nothing while Bambi has a feast at my expense.
How about you? Is anyone else gardening as a hedge against high food prices or simply for the challenge of it? Have any good deer remedies?
What’s on your mind?
Jun 03, 2008One of my faithful blog readers, Chris, inquired about a new topic. Nothing jumps to mind. Call it an early summer lull. Even the letters to the editor have dried up.
In my circle of friends, most folks are preoccupied with gas prices or figuring out what to do with the kids now that school’s out. Not very exciting topics. What about you? Got something to share. Feel free to do so here, and I’ll try to think of a more interesting topic later today.
The fight over the shirts
Apr 17, 2008Do you have to check your common sense at the door to become a school administrator? First, Vance Middle School administrators banned “Relay for Life” shirts. Now, it appears they don’t want their students reading the newspaper either (likely because it contained something critical of the school).
I understand the need for discipline, but we don’t send our kids off to school to be plugged into the hive mind. They are there to be taught critical thinking skills - skills they will need to be successful, contributing members of society as adults. What could have been a teachable moment has been turned into something else, an attempt at censorship for one.
What do you think? Did administrators make the right call? Are they overreacting to typical youthful behavior? Is there ever any justification for censoring a newspaper in a school setting?
Ask the candidates
Apr 09, 2008The newspaper’s editorial board is preparing to interview four candidates for Bristol Virginia City Council and five candidates for Bristol Virginia School Board. Election Day is May 6.
This is your chance to pose a question to the candidates. What do you want them to answer? Offer your suggestions here and we’ll ask them.
Earth’s stewards
Mar 11, 2008In a heartening development, 60 religious leaders (representing a variety of Christian denominations and the Jewish faith) presented Gov. Tim Kaine a letter yesterday asking him to oppose the Dominion Virginia Power plant proposed for Virginia City in Wise County.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports:
Roughly 60 Virginia religious leaders and scholars have asked Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to oppose Dominion Virginia Power’s plans for a coal-burning power plant in Wise County.
The proposed power plant will release an unacceptable amount of climate-changing greenhouse gases and will encourage more destructive strip mining in Virginia’s mountains, they said in a letter to Kaine.
“We do not want our energy to come from these immoral and destructive practices,” the authors wrote.
The Times-Dispatch article captures the thrust of the religious argument against the plant - namely that it violates the Judeo-Christian belief that we are stewards of creation:
Rabbi Ben Romer of Congregation Or Ami in Richmond said people have a moral and ethical responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth. Romer, a West Virginia native, said one only had to drive through that state to witness the destruction caused by mining.
People can find solutions to the problems facing the Earth, but they may not necessarily be the cheapest solutions, Romer said. The authors of the letter to Kaine said cleaner air and water would result by filling the demand for energy through conservation, efficiency and clean energy sources such as wind, solar and sustainable biomass fuels.
Read the full text of the letter here.
Christians believe that faith can move mountains. Perhaps it can save them as well.
